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SONY OPEN IN HAWAII

January 12, 2006

Jeff Sluman

HONOLULU, HAWAII

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Jeff, for joining us for a few minutes at the media center in the Sony Open in Hawaii. Good start to the year in some tough conditions. Why don't you talk a little bit about your day out there.

JEFF SLUMAN: I think my day started at about 2:00 A.M. when I heard the wind blowing, along with everybody else. I'm staying with a friend a quarter of a mile from the golf course and it was unbelievable. He's a local and he said it's going to be blowing hard for the next, at least through Friday.

All of my years coming here, I never really felt wind like that at night, usually it kind of dies down. So I knew it was going to be a tough day. Came out and hit some good shots early which kind of steadied you; you feel like you're playing from behind. I think that's the key to the round. Any time it's the first round of the year, you just want to get your feet on the ground and think about fundamentals. When you wake up and see a day like today on a golf course that demands you to shape the ball, well, that's a testy first round, that's all I can say. (Laughing).

Q. How hard do you think it was blowing?

JEFF SLUMAN: I think it's got potential to gust 25 to 30. This seems like it's about a steady 15, I would think.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Did it change much out there?

JEFF SLUMAN: Not really. That was the only good thing is it came out of the same direction yesterday and Tuesday. So you get a little better feel of the golf course as the days progress.

I've got to also give kudos to our field staff. We bash them when they set a golf course up poorly under adverse conditions, and I've got to give them credit. If that's the only thing you guys print out of this, hopefully that will be it. They did a great job on the golf course moving some tees around and probably a few pin placements. They recognize the difficulty of the golf course, and, like I said, they did a terrific job.

Q. Was it mostly crosswind today?

JEFF SLUMAN: Yeah, that's what Waialae is all about. There's very few holes straight into the wind or downwind. It's all crosswinds. I think the last couple of years, according to my yardage book, was played in Konas. Certainly last year I know. First hole last year was driver, 3 wood. Today it's driver, 7 iron.

So it's a whole different golf course out there. I guess that most of the holes you're trying to either put draw into a left to right or fade into a right to left, so it just demands a lot of shot making out there.

Q. What was your off season like? Obviously we saw you at the Presidents Cup and you were part of that winning team, what have you been doing this off season and where is your game coming in?

JEFF SLUMAN: After the Presidents Cup, I tried to disengage all of the horns on the carts because I was the one that got Tiger on the third round at the Presidents Cup. After that, I played a little and I usually take six weeks off. Always have, even when I lived out in California and Florida, just emotionally, mentally and physically, I've always felt like you need some time off after a long year. That's what I've always done.

Q. Did you touch a club at all?

JEFF SLUMAN: Not really. I went down to Florida over the holidays just through Christmas and practiced five or six days thereafter a month and a half off. Then came out here.

So it's a little bit of a mystery as to how well you're going to play. I think it's always it's a huge advantage this week for you to have played last week at Mercedes. I think of all of the weeks on Tour that you might have an advantage, that would be the kicker, coming from there to here I think is a huge deal, because most of the guys are obviously starting the year here. You get four good, competitive rounds under your belt there, it's a big jump on the field.

Q. I know Michelle has been a big story this week heading into the tournament, are you cognizant at all of that while you're on the course and can you be distracted

JEFF SLUMAN: Cognizant?

Q. Of how she's doing.

JEFF SLUMAN: No. I'm not trying to be mean, but it's so hard out there, I'm not even cognizant of how I'm doing. (Laughter). It's a shot by shot deal. You start thinking ahead one or two shots with your own game out here and you make bogey after bogey.

I'm certainly not looking at how anybody is doing except, like I said, hardly even myself. You've just trying to putt the next shot in play here and figure out how in the world you can get it on the green or chip it close.

Q. What do you think about what she's trying to do? Obviously she struggled today.

JEFF SLUMAN: See, I don't even know what she shot.

Q. She's 7 over.

JEFF SLUMAN: It's remarkable what she's already been able to do. Two years ago I thought as good of a story as anything, her missing the cut by a shot was she 14 or 13?

Q. 14.

JEFF SLUMAN: It's remarkable. And what's great about our country is that there's no limitations on what anybody says you can do or your imagination or anything like that. So she wants to become not only a great champion on the LPGA Tour, but she wants to play our tour.

Our tour is about the best players in the world. Doesn't matter, male or female, whatever, the golf ball, if you get it in the hole in 68 shots, that's what your score is. There's nothing that can stop anybody in this game except themselves.

I think it's remarkable what she's done, and after tournaments are over and after I'm over on the Champions Tour in a year and a half, I'm sure you can read about it and find out what everybody's doing. I'm sure her accomplishments in ten years will be pretty remarkable.

Q. Will you play out here like Jay does?

JEFF SLUMAN: I'd like to play a few events a year to stay sharp out here. It would be nice to play 22 to 25 on the Champions Tour and play four or five out here. I think that would be a nice mix to have. Once again, that depends on what your status is. If you are playing so much over there on the Champions Tour, you're going to really have no status out here except as a past champion, maybe sponsors will be kind enough to give you a spot and maybe they won't. I'll cross that bridge when it happens. It would be a nice kind of mix I think.

Q. Do you feel like this tournament has changed a lot sense you won it?

JEFF SLUMAN: Prize money has. (Laughter). Yes and no. The golf course has remained the same, which I think is great. This is the kind of golf course that doesn't, in my opinion, favor any type of golfer. We see a lot of them on Tour now that certainly seems like the setup and all that favors a certain type of golfer over other types.

Anyone with any kind of game I think can win out here. There's certainly more shot making involved on this golf course than most of them that we play on Tour, and I think that's a wonderful thing that is kind of getting bypassed with technology.

Sony has done a wonderful job staying here. Looking at the crowd today, the marshal coming over here said this is the biggest crowd he could remember on a Thursday. Highly involved in the community, it's just fantastic. You get all of the volunteers out here, they are happy to see you every year. It's good to have some things stay the same and have other things change.

Every tournament tries to do the best they can on a weekly basis. Sony is doing a magnificent job.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Jeff, can we go through your birdies and bogeys, please? You started on 1 and you birdied 4.

JEFF SLUMAN: I hit a 4 iron to about 15 feet just pin high.

I got up on 7 and hit 6 iron, I think it was playing about 167, but I thought I might have actually hit it in the bunker. I hit it really solid and the wind was fluttering the ball, got over about three or four feet.

I bogeyed 8. Now there's a typical hole here. Tough fit, hard down left to right. Bunker is over to the right, but you can't miss it left. I hit a really nice drive and it actually ran out through the fairway and in the bunker, left it just short of the green, chipped it up there eight feet and missed it.

I birdied 10 with a good drive and wedge to about 15, 18 feet.

I birdied 12, which was just a wonderful drive, kind of held it into the wind and right in the middle of the fairway. That gives you an opportunity to hit a shot from there. The pin was on the right, so instead of just taking a big 9 iron, just cut a little 8 iron in there to about six or eight feet.

These are the things I was saying about the playability of the golf course and the shot making we don't see as much on as we used to, let's put it that way.

15, I hit a nice 5 wood off the tee and hooked it around the corner. I think I had 149, just a 6 iron in there, a chip hook through the right fringe, and it was probably 25 feet and made that, which was obviously a very pleasant surprise.

16, I hit it perfect out there. Good 9 iron left and just kind of dumped it in the right bunker and a big, huge gust caught it. That bunker shot, it hit the pin and went five, six feet and hit a nice putt, didn't make it.

Then had two nice opportunities on 17 and 18 for birdie but didn't make it.

But 67, first round of the year, day like today, very happy with that.

End of FastScripts.

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